I use Microsoft Windows 98 with Word 97 and Outlook 97 running on a computer with an Intel Pentium II MMX CPU at 350 MHz. A ‘Screen of Death’ error message appears when shutting down using the ‘Start’ menu but only after I have been using the internet. It does not happen when I shut down having only used programs and not the internet during that session on my computer. The error message is ‘A fatal exception 0E has occurred at 0167:BFF8CC04. The current application will be terminated. Press any key to terminate the application. Press CTRL + ALT + DEL again to restart your computer. You will lose any unsaved information in all applications’. When I press a key as instructed in the error message, the error message disappears momentarily and comes back again. After pressing a key for the second time the error message disappears momentarily and comes back again. On the third press of a key the computer finally shuts down. I will appreciate your views on the cause of the problem and how to fix it.

Another notorious 0E error! There are a few things we can try to remedy this problem. Firstly, this problem could be caused by a USB (Universal Serial Bus) driver. If you have any USB devices, try disconnecting them before shutting down (especially if you have a USB modem). Secondly, make sure that you have the latest drivers for your video card as it seems that some older drivers can cause a problem (this is a particular issue with some ATI video cards if not updated with the latest drivers). Thirdly, the problem could be due to a conflict between a program running in the background and Windows. To find out if this is the problem, after you have used the internet and want to shutdown your computer, press CTRL-ALT-DEL and end all non-essential tasks (you can probably end all tasks except ‘Explorer’ and ‘Systray’). If the problem ceases then, you now know that this is the problem. However, the challenge is now to find the culprit application. To do this, each time you shutdown after using the internet, end one task by using CTRL-ALT-DEL. You will eventually find that when you close a certain task, the problem ceases. You now know which is the problem application. Your options now would be to uninstall the application, close it manually before shutting down, or stop it from loading at startup. You can stop it loading at startup by either removing the application from the ‘Startup’ program group or, if the application is not present in the startup group, go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’, type ‘msconfig’ (without the quotes) and press the ‘Ok’ button. In the window that opens, click the ‘Startup’ tab and then untick the program you wish not to load at startup, followed by pressing the ‘Ok’ button (be sure not to fiddle with any other settings as it could cause problems for your computer).